The Reform UK donations record now stands at £72 million, a sum that the BBC describes as more than any party has ever received in British political history. Ben Delo’s £36 million alone eclipses the previous record for the largest single gift by a living person, which was held by Christopher Harborne’s own earlier £9 million donation to the same party. That two records fell in the same week, to the same party, from two cryptocurrency billionaires, tells you something. Whether it tells you what Reform wants voters to hear is a different matter entirely.
A War Chest Without Precedent
Best for Britain puts the combined sum at more than seven times the largest amount ever given to a UK party. Reform’s counter-argument is that this merely ‘levels the playing field’, and there is a sliver of substance to it: of the roughly £65 million spent by Labour, the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats, the Greens and Reform combined at the 2024 general election, less than a tenth went through Farage’s operation. Labour’s fighting fund was more than five times bigger.
But context changes everything. An election is nearly three years away. Delo wrote in the Daily Telegraph that he was donating because he wanted ‘a fair fight and a level playing field’. Harborne, according to Reuters, said his £36 million (approximately $49 million at the time of the gift) was intended to help Reform prepare for government. These are not routine donor motivations. They are strategic investments made at a moment when the party has no imminent electoral test to spend against.
The money is transformative in practical terms. It could, in theory, fund a paid staff member in every UK constituency between now and polling day. In practice, the impact will be concentrated in target seats, which makes the sum go even further. Farage told the Sunday Times he had expected public reaction to be ‘far worse’ but sensed instead ‘some grudging respect… the fact that I managed to pull off a coup of that magnitude, I think people were quite impressed’. That is a revealing way to frame a political donation.
Reform UK Donations Record, Crypto Ties, and the Permissibility Question
Both donors are cryptocurrency billionaires. Reform has pledged to liberalise UK crypto rules, a policy the party says it held before attracting either donor. Opponents will find that sequence hard to accept at face value, and will say so repeatedly between now and whenever the next election arrives.
Delo’s background adds further texture. He was pardoned by US President Donald Trump after pleading guilty in New York to violating the US Bank Secrecy Act. He has since been registered as an ordinary British voter for at least four years, according to The Times, which matters because Labour MP Phil Brickell has asked the Electoral Commission to confirm whether both £36 million gifts are permissible, including under legislation the government is seeking to introduce to restrict donations from British expats.
Harborne, meanwhile, is registered to vote in Hampshire but is based in Thailand. The question of whether either man meets the permissibility threshold under existing or forthcoming law is not yet resolved.
The Sleaze Accumulation Problem
The donations land on already unsettled ground. Harborne previously gave £5 million directly to Farage, a gift made in early 2024, before Farage announced he would stand as an MP. Farage has described it as ‘purely private’ and ‘not political in any sense at all’, saying it was for his personal security. He failed to declare it on entering parliament. The Conservatives referred him to the standards commissioner; ITV News reports that Parliamentary Commissioner Daniel Greenberg formally interviewed Farage over the gift, with the probe resuming after Farage won a Clacton by-election. The BBC notes that MPs are required to declare any personal benefit received in the 12 months before taking office within one month of being elected.
Then came the Channel 4 sting. Undercover footage from Channel 4 News and Verbatim Investigations showed senior Reform officials apparently discussing a scheme in which a prospective US donor would pay more than £30,000 to fund opinion polls without disclosing the source of funds. Al Jazeera reported that the operation involved a potential foreign donation of £500,000 from a fake US donor. Dan Jukes and James Orr, two senior Farage aides, were suspended. Reform’s internal inquiry cleared both men of breaking any laws but said it ‘does not excuse’ the ‘foolish’ way they spoke to the undercover reporter, according to Politico. A Metropolitan Police criminal investigation into the alleged foreign donations remains open, independent of the party’s own inquiry.
My read is that the money problem and the integrity problem are now inseparable. Senior figures such as deputy leader Richard Tice say the party is ‘at war’ with traditional media, and £72 million buys a great deal of advertising. But advertising cannot neutralise a criminal investigation. Under first-past-the-post, a party does not just need its base to turn out; it needs the voters who dislike everyone to dislike it least. Polling suggests increasing numbers of voters consider Reform not merely undesirable but dishonest, and are willing to vote tactically to stop Farage reaching Downing Street.
Whether a second Clacton by-election materialises before Christmas, as the Conservatives appear to be preparing for, will be the next test of how that sentiment is hardening. The £72 million gives Reform an extraordinary electoral machine. Whether it has a driver who can steer it past the accumulating wreckage is quite another question.
